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28 October 2026: What’s the difference between extra virgin olive oil and regular olive oil? Can you cook with it? And what are the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil?
Nutrition and dietetics students at the University of Canberra learnt all this and more on Tuesday in an olive oil tasting tutorial in collaboration with Cobram Estate as part of the Nutritional Science unit.
Bachelor of Human Nutrition Course Convenor Dr Linda Smillie said the aim was to connect the nutritional aspects of olive oil with the sensory components.
“There's a lot of nutritional bioactive substances in olive oil, which influence the taste and the way that we might use it in our cooking. This workshop was about joining those dots for the students, allowing them to learn the material in a really practical way, which they can potentially draw on in their future as nutrition professionals,” she said.
The students only tasted extra virgin olive oil, which doesn’t use chemicals in the processing of the olives, nor high heat, preserving the antioxidant polyphenols and the corresponding health benefits and flavour.
The tasting involved first warming a little cup of oil in one hand, covering it with the other, and swooshing it around to release the aromas.
Each oil had a fresh smell – ranging from a subtle fruit and banana skin in the light oil (great as a butter alternative or to pair with fish or foods that could be easily overpowered), to green tomato and fig in the classic flavour (pair with a caprese salad), to the fresh cut grass, pine needles and green apple of the robust flavour (ideal for marinating red meat or dressing a bitter salad).
They also tasted Cobram Estate’s premium Hojiblanca blend – with a silky mouthfeel, it’s designed to be the star of a dish, tossed through pasta or served with toasted bread.
Swishing a sip of each oil throughout the mouth, the students learnt the correlation between the pungency – or tingle in the back of the throat – and the level of antioxidant, which is also what makes extra virgin olive oil stable at high heat, and suitable for cooking.
The students also tasted a rancid oil, learning to recognise the fermented fruit by the smell – described as mouldy, like horse poo or wet carpet – and experience the lack of flavour.
Jennifer Sullivan, a first-year Human Nutrition student and keen cook, has worked in marketing and product development for large companies in the US and Australia, so has tasted a lot of products in her time, but found the tutorial a novel experience.
“I've never drunk olive oil straight up,” she said. “I liked it. I've done wine tasting, but also working in the food industry we did a number of tastings – Worcestershire sauce, mustard, French fried onions, but never olive oil!”
